Entertainment

Fashion Startups Give Men Style That's Light on Shopping

The stereotype: a flock of women enter the mall for a day of shopping and fitting room fun. Throughout the day, they piece together celeb-worthy looks inspired by their favorite trends found on Pinterest, purchase accessories they spotted on Polyvore, and Instagram their new style with a solid #selfie.

When it comes to men, it’s a different shopping story. A solo one. And one that’s often filled with doubt.

“I’ve talked to so many guys who say they typically walk into a store, see what’s on a mannequin, and say, ‘I want that,’” says Derian Baugh, CEO of Men’s Style Lab, a Des Moines, Iowa-based personal shopping service for guys that sends expertly chosen outfits directly to their doorsteps. “They just don’t have an idea of how to put separate items together to make a really great looking outfit.”

A selection of merchandise from Men's Style Lab.

Image: Men's Style Lab

Style by algorithm

The men Baugh has worked with often know what colors, patterns, and styles they like but they don’t know what looks good on them. And they might have subconscious preferences – like an avoidance for the color yellow – that the Men’s Style Lab’s algorithm can pick up on. The personal shopping service gathers data on everything from what types of brands accountants tend to like to what styles of clothing individual clients send back.

“The goal is for a curated box of clothes to be 80% of the way planned because of the technology, with personal stylists giving the finishing touches,” Baugh said.

Men’s Style Lab hopes to release a mobile app like Pandora but for closets. A guy could wake up, set the date, and get an outfit recommendation. For those planning ahead for a special occasion, potential pairings could be suggested – and overnighted – for instant style success.

“We’ll know what’s in your closet because we sent it to you,” Baugh says. “A mobile app would allow us to say, ‘You’re in Madison, it’s 68 degrees out today, you have a business meeting at 2 PM, and here’s what you should wear.’”

That’s the same conundrum the New York-based FittingRoom hopes to solve. Users of the fashion app post a photo of their outfit then receive instant Tinder-like yes or no responses from the community plus Instagram-like comments.

“We really want it to just answer that question: what should I wear?” says Co-Founder and CEO Gregg Morton. “We’re seeing some activity from the guys but a majority of the pickup has been on the women.”

Women use FittingRoom app for more Instagram-like purposes, according to Morton. They already know they look good and they just want to share their style with the world, but the men take a more “practical approach” to fashion. Recent uploads to FittingRoom include photos of men asking, “Should I wear this tie to the interview?” or “Do I look good enough for my date?”

Advertising material from men's clothing company Pursuit.

Image: Kerrigan Steger Photography

“We see men absolutely asking very targeted questions and it’s typically as they’re running out the door,” says Morton. “Guys want to look good, and they care to look good, but they want it to be simple, easy, and practical to do so.”

Simple, easy, and practical is exactly how one could describe Pursuit, a men’s suit store on The Ohio State campus in Columbus. Pursuit customers enjoy “the easiest shopping experience they could possibly have while avoiding the mall and avoiding 10 million choices.”

“We figure that simplicity appeals to guys a lot more than it would appeal to their girlfriends,” says Pursuit owner Nate DeMars. “The average time it takes for a guy to buy a suit in our store is 30 minutes and I’ve seen girls agonize for far longer about which ugly Christmas sweater they want.”

Fashion 101

Pursuit has built a reputation around answering fashion questions without making men feel dumb. Educational infographics and YouTube videos, plus catchy mantras like ‘Your tie shouldn’t be wider than your phone,’ make fashion easy to understand – and easy to share online.

DeMars relies mostly on tagged Facebook photos to draw men to his store, e-commerce site, and Suitmobile, a converted bread truck that brings the Pursuit experience directly to customers across the Midwest and gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “mobile store.”

“Especially being on a campus, you get to the point where you’ve seen a handful of your friends online tagged in Facebook photos from Pursuit or posting photos of Pursuit on Instagram and it can quickly spread that this is the socially-acceptable place to shop,” DeMars says.

And socially acceptable is exactly what most men are going for. They want to blend in, not stand out, says Baugh. Men’s Style Lab asks their customers to rate their current wardrobe on a style scale of one to 10. Most customers give themselves a three or four.

“We’re just trying to help guys get closer to a 10, but in their mind a 10 is probably that guy wearing red pants – and that’s not who they want to be,” Baugh says. “We’re helping guys find that middle of the road style they can feel confident in.”

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